ROOTS-L Archives

From: Marty Hoag <>
Subject: Tiny Tafel vs?? GEDCOM From soc.roots
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 89 17:13:36 CDT

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----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Someone left a Door open (that's a joke, son) and I wandered into
this network from the NGC Conference on OPUS (or FIDO).

I am amazed in reading the messages here regarding "Tiny Tafel vs
GEDCOM", which treat them as two competing concepts of genealogical
data transfer which are locked in mortal combat for survival.

I use both Tiny Tafel and GEDCOM, and THERE IS NO CONFLICT.

Please fellows, do a little homework, and you will see that the two
concepts are totally different, and address totally different needs.
GEDCOM as you know is a data transfer format that is becoming the
"universal" format for transfer of genealogical information. It
transfers a fundamental "base set" for each person/family/etc. (If
you read Genealogical Computing you'll know that even now the
standard "base set" is still being debated.)

A TINY TAFEL is NOT a data transfer format. The TINY TAFEL is
simply a shorthand way of communicating the SURNAMES you are
researching. Data for each surname is included on a single line,
and includes the Soundex code, the birthdate and place for the
earliest ancester, and the same information for the latest
descendant. Indicators are also included to show your degree of
interest in the ancester and the descendant. A typical Tiny Tafel
is less than a page in length, although some are larger. They are
uploaded to participaring boards as messages, or as files, and are
available for viewing on any boards. Tiny Tafels are also machine
processed and compared with others for matches (based on Soundex
codes). Various search/match parameters can be selected to control
the extent of the search.

Two gross misconceptions were put forth in one message here:
>> Tiny Taffel is(was?) the First Standard - but like CPM, I believe
>> that the "marketing strength " of GEDCOM will phase it out.

>> There are utilities to convert from Tiny Tafel to GEDCOM, and
>> back again.....just as there are utilities to convert from Family
>> Roots, RootsIII, or PAF internal format to the GEDCOM ..format.

Now, the Tiny Tafel is NOT a transfer standard, and is NOT in
competetion with GEDCOM. Likewise, there ARE NOT utilities to
convert Tiny Tafel to GEDCOM, and back again.

I use Family Roots (Quinsept) and also PAF, both of which support
GEDCOM for export and import of data. RootsIII does it also. All
three have utilities which will create Tiny Tafels from their
databases. There is also an excellent stand-alone utility named
TTGEN12 by Tom Douglas into which you can enter your info from the
keyboard to create a Tiny Tafel.

Hope to see YOUR Tiny Tafel on the NET. We might just have a match.

By the way, I'm researching the following surnames, especially the
first two:

HOLLENBECK (Columbia Co,NY & GA), PARDUE, RUSHING, DELOACH (SC & GA)

George H. Pardue, 5010 Indigo St, Houston, TX 77096 (713) 667-2783

This thread:

• Tiny Tafel vs?? GEDCOM From soc.roots by Marty Hoag <>